508 TRAVELS m TBS EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



that I began to fear we should come into another 

 rapid, where onr frail raft would have been washed 

 ^to pieces among the foaming rocks in a moment; 

 but at last they succeeded in stopping her, and we 

 gained the opposite bank. Thence my guide took 

 me through a morasSj which was covered with a 

 dense jungle^ an admirable place for crocodiles, and 

 they do not fail to frequent it iu large numbers; 

 but the thousands of leeches formed a worse pest. 

 In one place, about a foot square, in the path, I think 

 I saw as many as twenty, all stretching and twisting 

 themselves in every direction in seai'ch of prey. They 

 are small, being about an inch long, and a tenth of an 

 inch in diameter, before they gorge themselves with 

 the blood of some unfortunate animal that chances to 

 pass. They tormented me in a most shocking man- 

 ner. Every ten or fifteen minutes I had to stop and 

 rid myself of perfect anklets of them, 



I was in search of a coral-stone, which the natives 

 of this region bum for lime. My attendants, as well 

 as myself, were so tormented with the leeches, that 

 we could not remain long in that region, but I saw it 

 was noihing but a raised reef, chiefly composed of 

 comminuted coral, in which were many large hemi- 

 spherical meandrinast. The strata, where they could 

 be distinguished, were seen to be nearly horizontal. 

 Large blocks of coral are scattered about, just as on 

 the present reefs, but the jangle was too thick to 

 travel in far, and, as soon as we had gathered a few 

 shells,* we hurried to the Musi^ and rode back seven 

 miles in a hea\'y, drenching rain. 

 All tlie region we have been travelling in to-day 



